BERLIN (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko brought into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to expand the list of sanctioned Russian individuals and legal entities and to extend the duration of these sanctions. A number of Russia's leading media outlets, IT companies and social networks were targeted by the decision.

"Freedom of information, press and opinions for us, in Germany, as, of course, for Europe, are among the most important values. But we affirm them also with the partners outside the European Union. It is important. This will also be reflected in all conversations, in all contacts that we carry out," Seibert told reporters answering a question on whether Ukraine's sanctions correspond to EU values which EU membership candidates should share.

"This is a wrong wording of the question, it [Ukraine] is not a candidate for [EU] membership," the spokesman added, stressing that "media freedom in Europe is one of the most important values."

The Council of Europe voiced concern over the violation of the the freedom of expression and freedom of the media in Ukraine in relation to Kiev's move. The Russian Foreign Ministry, in turn, said that the new anti-Moscow sanctions imposed by the Ukrainian authorities hardly corresponded to the principles adopted by both Europe and the world, as well as to the basic foundations of civil society.

The anti-Russia sanctions were initially imposed by Kiev in 2015 over Moscow's alleged meddling in the Ukrainian affairs. Russian authorities repeatedly denied the allegations of both Kiev and its Western partners.

promotes the use of narcotic / psychotropic substances, provides information on their production and use;

contains links to viruses and malicious software;

is part of an organized action involving large volumes of comments with identical or similar content ("flash mob");

“floods” the discussion thread with a large number of incoherent or irrelevant messages;

violates etiquette, exhibiting any form of aggressive, humiliating or abusive behavior ("trolling");

doesn’t follow standard rules of the English language, for example, is typed fully or mostly in capital letters or isn’t broken down into sentences.

The administration has the right to block a user’s access to the page or delete a user’s account without notice if the user is in violation of these rules or if behavior indicating said violation is detected.